Projects
Apart from my broadcast activities, as usual I have a raft of ongoing other pastime projects. Some receive my attention less frequently than others, depending on my creative mood, importance, priority and hours in the day.
Screenplay
I am currently writing various drafts and three versions of a screenplay which I hope will be transfer into development. The options and variations in the range of storylines will form the basis of a drama for film based on my recent historic research, although not the book I co-authored. As with all dramatisations based on fact it is pretty well impossible for the final piece to be completely accurate. In order to allow scope for dramatisation this is currently the biggest quandary I have.
I have also made allowances for a more recent and modern version of the facts which is quite interesting in many respects and allows for greater scope for creativity and although it breaks my heart from a historians point of view strangely, it reads far better than the original facts!
Actually selling the ideas can be one of the hardest aspects of this work but I believe that if I arm myself with the variations first it will save a lot of work and a bunch of creative pain in the future.
Websites
The one thing that can preoccupy my time more than anything else are my other websites.
The most demanding is ianwaugh.com/murderresearch which is also the most popular online work I have yet done. It was established in 1999 and has grown in editorial and use ever since. With about 100 unique hits daily (mainly from outside the UK), this work concentrates on the strange life of John 'Babbacombe' Lee and features my database of UK historic serious criminals and victims.
The other recent work is the history of a commercial radio station called DevonAir. I used to freelance for this company and I have now launched a multi-media website about the story of the station from 1980 when it opened until it's closure in 1994.
Faces from the Past
This section is in development right now but here is a teaser ...
Left:
Victorian photographers set up businesses all
over the UK - even on Dartmoor. This rare image
of a Victorian Dartmoor prison officer was taken
by Victor Prior of Sea View, Princetown. (If you
know anything about Mr. Prior or the identity of
this officer, please
contact me).
Right:
During the height of the Victorian era it was
quite common for young lads to join the Queen's
navy as a cadet recruit as this proud CDV so
clearly demonstrates. The photograph was taken
by Mr. J. White of 32 High Street,
Littlehampton. (If you know anything about Mr.
White or the identity of the cadet, please
contact me)
Carte-de-Visite's, or CDV's, are a type of card mounted photograph introduced in the mid 1850's and tremendously popular especially in America and Europe from 1860 until almost the turn of the century. The CDV is easily distinguished from other card mounted photos by its size, typically 2.5 x 4 inches (63 x 100 mm) or slightly less. The various characteristics of card mount, image and photographer's imprint often allows these images to be correctly dated to within a few years of their origin. The vast majority are portraits; unfortunately most of them are not identified with the subject's name. Even this is not always an insurmountable problem however, if a collection of photos from one photographer are compared to images in county histories or previously identified images from the same area, it is sometimes possible to match them up. (source: here)
You will be able to see the fascinating and diverse range of anonymous Victorian and Edwardian folk from my collection of old pictures here very soon.
War Letters
A while ago I bought a set of really interesting genuine letters written during the First World War. They are an entire collection addressed to a waiting mother, daughter, sister and sweetheart on the home front. As far as I can work out they are from two brothers - one in Egypt and the other stationed at a base in England.
They paint a deeply touching picture of a family who are experiencing the daily traumas of wartime life. They are amazingly candid and incredibly dramatic. There is a genuine hope for peace, a deep mourning at the loss of a loved one and a strangely naive optimism for a new life after the bloodshed.
These dramatic and at times painful letters were stored in a biscuit tin for years and I was extremely lucky to have been able to save them from obscurity or even destruction.
As soon as the task of transcribing the collection is complete I will publish some of the content online.
Here are a few examples:
15th November 1915:
My dearest little girl,
I am so sorry to hear you are unwell again, and do hope you will soon the pull round again. Many thanks for your letter I received yesterday which I am sorry I was unable to answer straightaway. Cheer up darling for I believe I shall soon be able to get out and home to you, if Dad can get the necessary medical certificates. Have been given a stripe as you will see from the above but this is only just a little encouragement, which of course won't have any effect in making the wish to stay any longer.
Write me and dearest if you possibly can as I am simply longing to hear you are feeling better.
Will write you again very soon.
Yours lovingly,
Arthur xxxx
21st September 1917
My dear sister,
Many thanks for your letter dated August 29 which I received a few days back, but have been unable to apply to until now, owing to our having experienced some terrible sandstorms, which is made it quite impossible to write. I have received your other letter, and no doubt you have received the reply by now. He did give me a shock when I learned that poor Ernie had been killed, something seemed to "go" inside me, isn't it too terrible, it certainly brings home to one the real horrors of war.
Poor old Ernie, to think that he is now no more, it is awful after all he has gone through. Another vacant chair! Poor chap. I wrote to him a week or so back and have not have a letter returned soon presume he had it. To change the subject a bit, I must say I am shaping well, and keeping in the best of health, in fact I have never felt better in my life. Glad you like the photo I had taken in Cairo, but the moustache is only for the duration, so I hope to be taking it off shortly.
I was quite surprised to know you were in touch with Auntie Alice and I forget what they are like now, and as for you living with them, well I couldn't really advise one way or the other. It pleased me to know that you're getting on so well with Beattie, how do you find her jolly good company. I have no doubt she livens things up a bit when it comes to music, and makes a welcome change for her.
It does seem a pity that mother makes such a little progress, and I hope that before long, she will show signs of recovery. I expect Dad has a very trying time, and no doubt he finds it very hard for he is getting no younger. I shan't be sorry when it's all over, I am well fed up, but I don't think it can last much longer, in spite of the slackness from the Russian Theatre. Still we must look on the bright side of things and hope for the best.
I fully expected to be home by this Christmas, but I rather fancy now it will be a washout, but one never knows, in wartime things are so uncertain, and the unexpected often happens. How are you going on now?
I hope Dame Fortune is smiling on you now and that you are keeping in the very best of health. Did you go to Bournemouth? And what kind of time did you have? Well, I think I have almost run dry now, so will now conclude, wishing you the best of everything.
Best love and wishes to you and all. Goodbye.
I remain,
your affectionate Brother,
Fred
It's very touching stuff and quite extraordinary to transcribe as well.